Unsung piano trios

[chill319]

Piano trios were a mainstay of 19th-century chamber music. Members have accordingly discussed trios by numerous unsung composers, including:
Bache, Berens, Fesca, Franck (Eduard), Gernsheim, Goldenweiser, Hägg, Höller, Jacobsson, Klauwell,
Labor, Laurischkus, Lux, Merikanto, Mikorey, Neumann-Cordua, Reber, Reingle (Caroline), Rimsky-Korsakov, Sellergren, Spohr. de la Tombelle, Walthew, Weigl, and Zelenski among many many others.

I would add to this list the Piano Trio, opus 5, by Max Bruch. There is nothing tentative about this early work, first performed publicly in 1857. Had Schumann heard it, one imagines he would have praised Bruch nearly as highly as he praised Brahms in 1853.

[LateRomantic75]

In my view, Raff's Piano Trio no. 1 is one of his finest works and a pinnacle of romantic chamber music. It's a highly charged, urgent work with some beautiful and geniunely memorable melodic writing. His fourth work in the genre is a sunnier affair, but it boasts a slow movement of great gravitas.

No discussion of unsung piano trios could be complete without mention of Arensky's two, which are passionate, energetic works that draw upon Slavic as well as Germanic sources.

[LateRomantic75]

However, my favorite unsung piano trio is Novak's Trio quasi una ballatta, a grippingly powerful, even tragic work filled with wistful melodic yearning. It sure packs a lot of action into its 16-minute duration!

[Alan Howe]

I like the responses - great reasons!

[giles.enders]

Taneyev's unsung piano trio in D Op.22 will be performed at Conway Hall on February 2nd by the Barbican trio.

[Balapoel]

relatively unsung is Beethoven's aborted 1815 effort, Piano Trio in f minor. I have a recording of the first movement as far as it goes - very interesting - he was on a very different path from his other trios when he abandoned it. It has mystical elements, strange harmonies, dark, deep, mysterious, and compelling as far as it goes.

[jerfilm]

I second the Arensky opus 1 - been on the desert island list since my first hearing.

I searched for the reference to the Reingle thread mentioed above but can not find any reference to her in the forum.  Am i missing something here??

jerry

[TerraEpon]

What, no Chaminade? Her Piano Trio No. 1 is an absolutely marvelous piece, especially the first movement. It's the perfect fir for that thread from a little while ago about unsung melodies that get stuck in your head.

[LateRomantic75]

It's probably my loss that I've largely overlooked Chaminade's music (though I've been intrigued by her choral symphony Les Amazones). Which recording of her piano trio(s) would you recommend?

[TerraEpon]

Not sure how many there are, but I own two. One is on Dorian (I believe) that has Ravel and Saint-Saens #1 with it. The other is on ASV which also has Chaminade's #2 and a four arrangements of piano pieces. The former is probably the better recording of said piece.

[LateRomantic75]

Thanks for your response! I'm tempted to go with the ASV recording so as to avoid further duplication with the Ravel and Saint-Saens trios, though...

[John H White]

I find Ignaz Lachner's 6  piano trios, where a viola takes the place of the more usual cello, all very enjoyable, especially no. 1 in B flat and No. 4 in D minor, both of which can be found and listened to at the Noteworthy Scriptoriam, where I uploaded my Noteworthy transcriptions of the scores.
   Another brilliant work for the more normal combination with cello is, in my opinion, William Hurlstone's trio in G, also available on the Noteworthy Scriptoriam.

[regriba]

If you like good, mid-19th century piano trios there is a fine Classico CD of the Eskar trio performing works by Emil Hartmann (son of JPE), Peter Heise and Christian Barnekow. All three works are solidly within the Mendelssohnian idiom favoured by Danish composers of the period. Nothing earth-shattering, but fine, well-crafted melodious trios. Even a bit old-fashioned for their time - there aren't many hints even of Brahms in them. But then Brahms was intensely unpopular in Copenhagen after voicing strong support for Bismarck during a visit only four years after Denmark's defeat in the Dano-Prussian war of 1864.

[TerraEpon]

There's also Reicha's piano trios, which are very much what one would expect -- tuneful early romantic pleasures. Long OOP on CD though.

[eschiss1]

Well, re Barnekow, the trio's his op.1 anyway. (I'm curious what some of his later works - piano quartet, string quintet, violin sonata- sound like (one can see them on IMSLP, but I'm not that good at hearing from reading). But yes, another thread.)